Hello All!

OLA!! fun week this week. Lots of funny memories made. Too many little stories, so you will have to wait till I get home to hear them;) I haven't talked about my studies in awhile so this week I have really been studying Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. I have learned a great deal on Humility and Patience, two areas that I have always struggled in.

Sweet license plate: California Fresno Mission

Patience is something I am definitely growing in, but am continuing to be humbled ever so often. This past week we were dropped by an investigator that we had been teaching for a few weeks. His dad got rather upset at us for teaching the Law of Chastity... He didnt like us saying it was bad to have sexual relations before marriage, so he basically dropped us for "R" (our investigator) by kicking us out of the house. Kinda frustrating.

P day photo shoot

Also I have been struggling with loving others, including my companion. We are doing great work together, I just haven't had the love that I really want to have for him. I am really studying Chapter 6 in order to better myself and find more love for others. I am excited for the coming weeks. We have 3 Investigators right now preparing for baptism. "B-girl", "A-boy", and "C-boy". They are all awesome and we are looking forward to getting them into the waters of baptism this month! I know I have said this a bunch but I love this area soooo much!!

The members here are seriously such good friends of mine already. I am soo happy that I have had the chance to serve here for these past 4 months! Everything is going great here. I bought myself two new short sleeve shirts in preparation for this summer coming up... It is going to be soooooo stinkin hot.... Should be good though! Maybe I will shed a few pounds;) Hows everyone's missionary efforts going?! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Check out that temperature

Staying in Visalia!

So I am staying in visalia for another 6 weeks with Elder Vonk! Should be Fun! We are teaching like 6 people and all of them are doing pretty well. They all have their different concerns and issues but they are all awesome!! we are going to keep working with them and hopefully we will have some baptisms this week! We got to go to a baseball game this week!! Haha our stake president bought our entire zone tickets to the local 1A baseball team called the Visalia Rawhide. we lost but it was stinkin fun!!! ill send some picutres!! So i found out that 3 missionaries got their visas this transfer and are heading out tonight!! maybe one day it will come:) Love you all!!! 

Oi Familia!

Well I understand more about the Visa issues and I will work on preparing another one. I will do everything I can to have my Visa come in. As you know my mission here in Fresno is a "Temporary Re-assignment" meaning my call is still to Brazil. I will do everything that I need to do in order to obtain a Visa and if it doesnt come then I will know I did everything in my power and it was in the Lord's Hands. So I will get the FBI stuff figured out this week. Stay tuned on that.  (Insert Courtney's note: Dallas had received in early May 2013, and, being the on-the-ball person that he is, he took care of his FBI clearance/fingerprinting/background check immediately so he could include it with his Visa application. Who would have thought that it would take more than a year from the time he got his FBI clearance to get his Visa processed by the Brazilian consulate? Poor kid. Keep him in your prayers, he obviously really desires to serve in Brazil, since that's where he was called by the Prophet. Yet, he is pouring his heart into the work in CA, and still studying Portuguese an hour daily.)

As for this week! Great Week! We had a ton of success this week! We had 6 member presents (that means 6 members of their ward were present for a lesson) this week and found 7 new investigators! It was kinda crazy because at the beginning of the week we didnt have a whole lot of people to teach and we were getting rather frustrated.. But we kept working and have really been focusing on ATM's, (I don't know what that stands for) which is awesome because by Friday we had found 4 new investigators through members! It truly was an awesome week and one that gets me excited for future weeks! I am growing in love for this area! The members here are sooo awesome! I am grateful everyday for the opportunity I have to be serving here in California. I have learned sooo much from serving here and am soo proud to be a missionary! Yesterday marked the 8 month mark... 1/3 of my mission is gone.. So sad!! Just more incentive to work harder;) I love you all and am grateful for all you do for me! Tem um bom Semana!!

​Another Visa waiter who i have gotten close with. he has been out over 9 months! brazil is crazy for not wanting these two handsome elders;) Estou Brincando!! (I am Joking)

​ Heaven on Earth.. It is the best place ever..

ELDER Ave!! I told you i would find it!!

A member has the outhouse from Shrek!! how cool is that!! it works and everything!!

Mormons and Dodgeball.

May 21 Update

So it has been an awesome yet hard week as well.. Today was nice because we got to go to the temple! It was awesome to get to have my spirit strengthened. Afterwards we got to go to Doghouse grill which was awesome! Tough news though that i just read... I got an email saying that i have to redo my FBI  clearance... another 12 weeks before my visa is even looked at again. I guess I will just start over? Honestly that is really tough to read after I kinda told myself that I would commit myself to working on my Portuguese in preparation for Brazil.. Its hard but I will talk to president about it tomorrow.  We are doing good in our companionship and hope to have two baptisms in June. I love you all sooo much!! Today is our preparation day and I am not going to get to read any of your emails because I'm super short on time so on Monday i will be able to email all of you in depth!

LOVE YOU!!

Feliz Dia Dos Mais! (Happy Mother's Day!)

Dang it was awesome to talk to yall! Man i will be totally honest... my gut was churning all day in anticipation of talking to yall.. But it was nice to finally sit down and get talking! It was a great source of comfort and peace. I will always be grateful for the moments i have talking with all yall! This week has been another pretty under the radar week except for obviously the skype call! We have set a date with our investigator named A for June 23 so please pray for him!

Thank you all for the love and support you provide me and all the other missionaries around the world! This week I have been reading from 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon about when Christ comes and visits the Americas (chps 11-28). I absolutely LOVE these chapters. Christ's doctrine that he teaches the Nephites is the same doctrine found in the New Testament. We can see that Christ established ONE church and set forth ONE doctrine that we should follow (Ephesians 4:5) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true and correct church on the earth today. Other churches can have truths in them but there is one church and one faith that Christ himself established- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Be proud to be a member of this church because it is through this church and our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ that we can live again with our Heavenly Father!

LOVE YOU ALL!! Tem um bom Semana! Have a good week!

Mother's Day

So this week has been... I honestly cant even remember! It was just one of those weeks where nothing really happened. We did an exchange and I went with my District leader's companion. His name is Elder Anderson and he is CRAZY.. Haha he literally was talking every single second of the exchange. I will say though that he is a ton of fun. He has what we like to call a "butt part" meaning he parts his hair right down the middle of his head haha! I love him. We didn't really have any success this week in the area. Kinda bland but overall it was a good week!

I am learning to not let little things bother me anymore. Good lesson to learn Huh! I have been studying 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon and have found great revelation as i have studied. The pride cylce that the nephites go through is something i am trying to relate to myself! Especially in Missionary work. when things start going good i get prideful and eventually my area begins to suffer which humbles me! I am trying to stay humble though! I am grateful for the lessons I have learned being out here! It will be awesome talking to yall on Mothers day! I will get your info probably through a member contacting you! so be ready to respond! it will probably be later in the day like 5 ish or maybe earlier depending on our schedule and what elder vonk wants to do! Love you!!

Very Interesting Week

Haha sooo this week has been a rather long and very entertaining week. I have been with My district leader and his companion all this week in preparation for my new companion on tuesday. His name is Elder Vonk and he isnt a visa waiter but he did come out with me! From what i hear he is awesome!! So Im pumped!! Haha but this week has been a crazy week covering two rather large areas... I didnt get a whole lot done in my area but we worked hard in their area.  I did find two new invetsigators and we set three [baptismal] dates for may 10th but we will see how solid they are. I am excited about the new companion and the opportunity to be in this area for another transfer. That is crazy that during this transfer is Mothers day.... Whoa where did the time go... But nonetheless I am excited to talk to yall!

Easter was awesome! I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on the new video that came out called Because of Him. It is on lds.org.. It is probably the best video I have ever seen! so powerful yet so simple! We had 2 dinners and a dessert yesterday that we went to so as you can guess i was stuffed.... I love the members here in Visalia! They are all awesome! Im soo glad i am here! You know everyday that goes by the whole brazil thing becomes more of a fantasy.. Not to say i am totally done but it is hard to even think about it because of how long i have been here! Good news is i Love it here! The tri-companionship has been soo fun though. We have been having a blast but i am definitely excited to finally have a companion again. Thanks for all the emails I love you all sooooo much!!! Keep up the awesome work!!

FURTHER UPDATE
Mom got this text message on Saturday...

Hi Sister Schoen! 

We just had the privilege of taking your son and his companion to dinner. 
Elder Schoen was the first to have eaten completely the Burrito Gigantic. 
More pics coming. 

Sister Schoen

Your son has been teaching a co-worker of mine, Sheila Dills. 

Please keep her in your prayers for us too. 

Your son has been one of the best missionary teachers that 

my husband and I have experienced.  Thank you! 

Ever grateful, Elder n Sister Torgeson. 

(We r Service Missionaries for Addiction Recovery Program;)

He is enjoying it!